On the 10th of August 1628, crowds gathered on what is known as the Slussen or sluice on port of Stockholm to see the Vasa, a magnificent Swedish royal war ship, depart on her maiden voyage.
With three hundred men on board she set sail.
With three hundred men on board she set sail.
Not long after leaving port the ship hoisted four of her ten sails but within minutes she started to capsize causing water to gush through her open gun ports, not quite on her side she manged to sail just under a mile before she sank, taking with her, to the bottom of the Baltic Sea, thirty of her one hundred and fifty crew. Soon after the accident the ships captain was arrested, but it soon became clear that the cause was a construction error on not a human one.
On the examination of the ship it was found that she was not in proportion, being far too heavy and too tall for her hull. The Vasa had been commissioned in 1625 by King Gustavus Adolphus II and was sixty nine meters in length and was the largest ship ever built in Sweden and was the first of four new warships to be built. In 1961, over 333 years later, the wreak of the Vasa was salvaged and for nearly half a century the ship has been slowly and painstakingly restored.
On the examination of the ship it was found that she was not in proportion, being far too heavy and too tall for her hull. The Vasa had been commissioned in 1625 by King Gustavus Adolphus II and was sixty nine meters in length and was the largest ship ever built in Sweden and was the first of four new warships to be built. In 1961, over 333 years later, the wreak of the Vasa was salvaged and for nearly half a century the ship has been slowly and painstakingly restored.
Today, she has her own museum in Stockholm were her three masts, which I assume to be replicas, are visible on the roof outside to show the height of the ship's original masts.
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